1/28/2007

The Woodside Library Garden

I'd heard there was a nice garden of California native plants growing behind the public library in Woodside.

IMG_7148

There is!

IMG_7143

This is Arctostaphylos pajaroensis (Pajaro Manzanita). I have this in my garden and I've pinned all my hopes to it; this is the key specimen planting in my small garden.

IMG_7123

Manzanitas flower in winter and this one flowers pink and white. The red bark on the contorted trunk exfoliates in long strips, and the foliage changes color all year long. This plant has a small native range in Monterey County (a place I love) which has a climate very similar to San Francisco's.

IMG_7137

I have a lot of this blue Festuca idahoensis too.

IMG_7135

Here's Muhlenbergia rigens again. Deer Grass. We just saw it at Stanford.

IMG_7127

I don't have this, but I would like to. I can spend a long time gazing at the picture on page 210 of this book which shows blue elderberry growing with salvia and what could be deer grass. (It's like porn to me. I get lusty.)

IMG_7130

A long shot.

IMG_7128

I have no trouble at all enjoying the seasonality of dead plants. This is Epilobium canum. It would have just finished flowering a couple months ago. When the rest of the garden is shutting down at the end of summer, this one kicks in with small, fluttery reddish flowers that welcome the fall. Then it leaves this golden dead stuff to contrast with evergreen ceanothus and manzanita.

IMG_7131

It spreads unbelievably. Last year, it steamrolled the other plants growing in the same bed and I had to remove it before I could enjoy the flowers. Things will be different this year.

Horses next door.

IMG_7136

And dragons inside the library.

IMG_7139

IMG_7140

IMG_7141

3 comments:

Christopher C. NC said...

Our Kihei Library's landscaping is pathetic. They spent thousands of dollars putting in fancy grounds when it was built and then had no budget or staff to maintain it. It all died and turned to weeds.

This Woodside library is very nice.

chuck b. said...

I'm 99% certain it's all done by volunteers. Those rich Woodside ladies dig the native plant scene.

chuck b. said...

And the library itself is downright funky. It seems like it's mostly for kids. Which makes sense. What Woodside adult would borrow something he could just buy? But you don't want to buy a library full of kids books.